Ontario homeowners have now recorded four straight years without a quarterly improvement in severe mortgage delinquencies, setting the province apart even as some national measures of consumer credit stress begin to stabilize.
Equifax Canada said 90-plus-day missed mortgage payments in Ontario increased in every quarter over the past four years, extending a deterioration that has begun showing up beyond mortgages themselves.
Among Ontarians who have a mortgage, the 90-plus-day delinquency rate on non-mortgage debt reached 0.86% in Q2, up 2.2% from the previous quarter and 27% from a year earlier. Across Canada excluding Ontario, the comparable rate increased only 2.1% year-on-year.
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This compares to national picture where Canadian consumer debt reached $2.68 trillion, up 4.18% YoY and 1.3% from Q1. Non-mortgage balances rose to $712.2 billion, up 4.8% from last year.
The national 90-plus-day non-mortgage balance delinquency rate fell to 1.76% from 1.79% in Q1, although it remained above the 1.70% reported a year earlier. Mortgage holders nationwide carried $304.6 billion of non-mortgage debt, with their severe delinquency rate rising 12.5% YoY to 0.77%.
“Ontario continues to stand out though, with some mortgage holders struggling to keep up with other credit obligations,” Equifax Vice President of Advanced Analytics Rebecca Oakes said.
The province’s prolonged deterioration overlaps with the continuing reset of mortgages originated when borrowing costs were considerably lower. The Bank of Canada said in its 2026 Financial Stability Report that many borrowers who obtained mortgages during the pandemic renewed at higher rates in 2025 and the first half of 2026, although most have continued making payments.
The central bank estimates that five-year fixed mortgages originated during the pandemic representing about 12% of all outstanding Canadian mortgages will renew over the next 12 months. Those borrowers are expected to face an average payment increase of roughly 15%.
Pressure is also showing up at the entry point to homeownership. Equifax said 70.9% of first-time buyers used joint mortgages through Q2 2026, up from 57.6% in 2016. Among first-time buyers younger than 35, Ontario and British Columbia had roughly twice the share of joint mortgages involving borrowers separated by at least 20 years compared with the rest of Canada.
The combination leaves Ontario as a notable exception to the broader stabilization in Canadian consumer delinquency.
